


Other Avengers

by Not_You



Series: Other Avengers [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-10
Updated: 2012-09-10
Packaged: 2017-11-13 22:59:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/508644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_You/pseuds/Not_You
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers lineup from 'Archer and Agent' explained.  Essentially a short fic about the events of 'Iron Man' in this universe, and then some drabbles about every other member of the team and how they got to the party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Other Avengers

Vigilance  
"Pepper. Pepper, look at me. Look at me." She meets Tony's eyes, still groggy and probably in shock, shivering in all the coverings he and Yinsen could find. His callused hands cup the sides of her face as she gazes into those dark eyes, seeing nothing else. Not the cave, not the wires and the wound in her chest. "I am going to get you out of this." She nods, feeling dull and stupid. "Pepper. Repeat after me: Tony is going to get me out of this bullshit."

"Tony is going to get me out of this bullshit." She giggles, and it's not a good sound, too close to hysteria.

"You're damn right I am, because I'm awesome." And it's so much like him, so cocky and narcissistic and normal that she giggles again, and this one is better.

Later, when her head is clearer, she asks them why the Ten Rings even bothered, why she's lugging this car battery and not dead. Tony shuffles his feet sheepishly, and mumbles something.

"What?"

"What he is so embarrassed to tell you, Miss Potts, is that he threatened to kill himself if they let you die."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time."

It's a trick they stack later, Pepper with her hand wrapped around the cords tethering her to the battery and Tony with a shank resting against his femoral artery, the air thick with lust and the potential for violence. In the end, the risk is too high for the prize of Pepper's scrawny, maimed, wild-eyed charms, and the three of them are left alone again. Tony holds her tight enough to bruise, trembling with rage and relief and leftover fear. No one speaks for a long time. Finally Tony lets go and stands up, with that look of deadly inspiration he gets before his best work.

For Pepper, the next long while of their captivity is like being a surgical nurse for an operation on a member of some alien species. She recognizes the tools, but has no idea what Tony and Yinsen are working on. She does know damn well that it's not a missile.

The escape is a blur, with a few moments standing out sharply. Pepper turns out to be able to drive this thing after all, and they lose Yinsen, who just smiles and says that an old man should die, not the young lovers. Tony swears at him through his tears and then they're flying. And this part of it is beautiful, burning sun and endless sky even as Tony's ramshackle creation falls apart around her. She almost loses him with the gauntlets, but manages to catch him by the hair and the waist of his pants with her naked hands before they go into a final spin to crash into the sand.

"Tony?!" It's a harried, frantic squawk, because if he's dead after all of this the world will keep spinning but the universe will end just the same.

"Right here, Potts." He sits up and hugs her tightly, and she clings for one precious moment before they have to be up and staggering away. An image comes to her of the two of them as hitchhikers, with ANYWHERE BUT HERE scrawled on their cardboard sign.

In the end, after Obadiah and everything else, it's Christine Everhart who names her Vigilance. Pepper isn't sure what to make of it, but accepts SHIELD's cover story, that Vigilance is her bodyguard. That swift, darting shape in gleaming red and gold is not Pepper Potts, and never stays still long enough for an interview.

 

Fury  
He blames Banner for this, even though no one could have predicted it. It gives him someone to yell at from his isolation chamber, and that's soothing. He's stuck there for a while before he changes for the first time. And then he's not stuck there because the walls might as well be butter. He's pissed off, but lucid. He maybe thinks more with his senses than normal, because they're so much keener and more insistent, but he doesn't kill anyone on his way out. It's not about killing people, it's about getting the fuck away and getting his head together. His head which is now shaped like a weasel's and covered in silvery fur.

It's Phil Coulson who finds him, of course. Talks him down and leads him back to the installation so Banner and Ross can look him over. Betty Ross, that is. They get her bastard of a father stonewalled pretty damn fast, and Fury finds that his new abilities only make him more effective. When his cold rage tells him exactly who to kill, a thought can mold his body into the right shape for it.

 

U.S. Agent  
Fury orders Coulson not to volunteer for the next round with the serum, but the bastard sneaks around behind his back and gets juiced and blasted and god knows what else. It doesn't make him look a bit different, unlike the spectacular effects it had had on Steve Rogers, but the physical enhancements are almost the same. Phil Coulson's experience and expertise in a body better than the one he had at twenty-two is terrifying. Fury has no choice but to put him onto the Initiative and get Hill to be their handler instead. She doesn't have Coulson's deft touch, but she'll learn.

 

Antman  
"Yeah, ants. Fuck you. There's over a quadrillion of 'em and it's more than we've got."

"Nice helmet, bugmaster." Tony pokes at the delicate silver headgear on the table, and Hank Pym rolls his eyes.

"I don't have your technical expertise, so I did the best I could with what I had, and—"

"Stop the low self-esteem party, man. This is amazing. Hey, Bruce, check this shit out."

"Is that—"

"It's not vibranium, but it tastes a lot like it."

"…Tastes?"

"Synesthesia. Orgasms come in all shapes and colors, and the letters of your last name make a soft and pleasant ringing sound when I look at them. And this helmet tastes a lot like vibranium."

"How long does it take to get used to this?"

Bruce makes a wavering gesture with one hand. "Two weeks of moderate to heavy exposure, maybe a month of light."

"Good to know." He eyes Tony warily, but is used to him by the time Bruce's two weeks are up.

 

Silver Sable  
Silver Sablinova finds herself indebted to the U.S. Agent. That is all. Vigilance is a real lady and therefore to be respected. Fury will not sleep with her and is thereby put down under 'Suspicious. Antman is just sad, and she hates creepy, crawly things anyway.

 

Loki  
Loki loves Midgard. He loves it from the very marrow of his bones and down to his delicate white fingertips. They appreciate cleverness here, and subtlety. His new shield-brothers can see plainly that Thor is a menace, a great, over-indulged child who will break everything rather than let anyone else play with it, and they are willing to help him. Truly, he loves them all with all their faults. Silver is a hopeless snob and sometimes cruel as the wind in winter, but she is loyal and true. And absolutely fearless. She fascinates him more than he will ever admit. Fury is the advisor Thor should have had, to keep him from his current path. The Ant Man is a strange one, but fun to tease. He seems to be coming around, if slowly. The Iron Lady is fierce and resolute and soft and smooth as silk, much like the Agent she is so close with.


End file.
